Original - North Central Michigan College Library

twenty-fifth, by which time the small lakeswere frozen over and two feet of snow lay onlevel ground in the woods. This early severityof the season filled us with serious alarm, forthe country was uninhabited for two hundredmiles on every side of us and if detained bywinter our destruction was certain. In thisstate of peril we continued our voyage dayand night. The fears of our men were a sufficientmotive for their exertions.On the first of October we gained themouth of the River de Bourbon, Pasquayah, orSascatchiwaine 41 and proceeded to ascend itsstream. The Bourbon is a large river and hasits sources to the westward. 42 The lands whichwe passed after the twenty-first of Septemberare more hilly and rocky than those describedbefore. The trees are poplar and spruce. Therocks are chiefly of limestone. Our course fromthe entrance of Lake Winipegon was northwestnortherly. The lake contains sturgeon,but we were not able to take any. At fourleagues above the mouth of the river is theGrand Rapide, two leagues in length, up whichthe canoes are dragged with ropes. At the endof this is a carrying-place of two miles, through41The lower part of the Sascatchiwaine was oncecalled the River de Bourbon. Pasquayah is the nameof an upper portion of the Sascatchiwaine. Author.42The river is the modern Saskatchewan, whichgives name to a province of Canada and drains a vastarea between the Rocky Mountains and Lake Winnipeg.Editor.246